Hi,
Went up at weekend. As is typical, the young lady I had the appointment with hadn't a clue what I was talking about. She started by insisting that I would have to open a sterling account first.
I produced the form which has been provided to me from the interantional banking team which she read and just asked me to fill out the form, took a copy of my passport and utility bill and informed me that I would receive relevant documentation in the post about account and online banking when its open.
So still waiting for the post to arrive...
Because the account could not be open on the day, I wasn't able to lodge any funds into it directly and its a good thing because there are CHARGES.
[broken link removed]
A current or instant savings account has a £5 a month charge.
There is also a charge each time you transfer funds in or out of hte account. Interest rate is .1% per annum gross so .08% which is pitiful.
From HSBC international banking via email
Incoming Funds
Charges are applicable each time funds are received into one of our UK based euro accounts. Presuming funds are received electronically via bank transfer, it will cost between £1.00-£6.00, regardless of the value of the transfer.
The £1.00 charges applies to funds received by SEPA. If the funds are not received by SEPA, the cost is £6.00.
To pay cash into your euro account, it costs 1% of the amount deposited.
Most online transfers from online banking is SEPA to my knowledge..
Outgoing Funds
The charges are different when it comes to transferring the funds out of the euro account.
The charge for outward payments will either be £9.00 or £30.00, dependant upon the amount of money your transfer out and the country it is going to.
If you are transferring the funds to an Irish account, you can transfer up to 3,200 euros via Worldpay, at a cost of £9.00. If you are transferring above 3,200 euros, the money will be transferred via Priority Payment at a cost of £30.00.
The cash withdrawal charge mirrors the depositing charge at 1%
So a word of warning.
If you plan on cash lodgements or withdrawals, you'll hit with 1% commission each time.
If you will be accessing the funds on any type of regular basis, you'll hit charges too.
I had a look at Barclays offering in terms of a EURO account and its very similar albeit, slightly more expensive to withdraw from but in general charges seem less if balance is kept over 2k. BUT you need a Barclays sterling current account before opening a euro account so thats a bit messier.
http://www.barclays.co.uk/Currentaccounts/Currencyaccounts/euroAccount/P1242557963870
Its only useful for dumping EUROs into an account to safeguard it from Enda and Eamon dipping into it or worse case, breakaway from Euro. I guess it comes down to what you believe is likely to be the short-term and long-term outcome.